This morning, John McCain gives a speech and launches an ad
touting what the world would look like after his first term in
office. Some commentators have made the argument that given his
age, McCain should pledge to only run for a single term, and set
very specific goals for his time in office. To me, this seems like
an effort to do so implicitly, while avoiding looking like a lame
duck by doing so explicitly. I think what he runs the risk of,
though, is making so many ambitious promises that he undercuts his
image as a straight talker, and makes it harder to portray Barack
Obama as a naive dreamer who resides in Fantasyland. I thought this
was especially true in the ad, which you can view below. It comes
across like he's running a chicken in every pot campaign.
Here is some of what he envisions:
--"By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the
servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America
might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won. Iraq is
a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the
lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian
tension."
--"The threat from a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan has been
greatly reduced but not eliminated."
--"The United States and its allies have made great progress in
advancing nuclear security."
--"The size of the Army and Marine Corps has been significantly
increased, and are now better equipped and trained to defend
us."
--"After exercising my veto several times in my first year in
office, Congress has not sent me an appropriations bill containing
earmarks for the last three years. "
He also sees a League of Democracies to supplant the UN, which
acts to end the genocide in Darfur, free mark health care reform,
tax code simplification, and so on. You get the idea.
